This disclosure relates generally to machines for preparing shaved ice confectioneries, and more particularly, but not necessarily entirely, to a block ice shaver that is particularly adapted for producing a light, fluffy, finely textured shaved ice, or powdered snow-like flavored food products.
A variety of machines have been developed, described and are widely known for creating or processing cold deserts and confectioneries by processing ice into more appealing eatable forms, such as snow cones and shaved ice. Such devices produce either ice granules (snow cones) or light, fluffy, finely textured shaved ice for subsequent flavoring using syrups. For consistency, a block of ice can produce more appealing ice shavings than cubed ice, for example.
Despite the advantages of shaved ice machines that are available in the marketplace, improvements are still being sought. Machines in the marketplace may have limitations such as, cumbersome ice block change procedures, frozen and impacted blades, blades that do not produce light, fluffy, finely textured shaved ice, and may produce inconsistent shaved ice textures because the feeding of an ice block into a blade is inconsistent or because the machine cannot adapt to the changing consistency of the ice as the block of ice begins to warm and melt. Such machines that may use large blocks of ice tend to operate at a relatively slow rate, require significant maintenance, and are incompatible with either home use or large volume use.
Further, such machines may not be able to accommodate the changes in the texture of the block of ice as the ice begins to warm. As ice begins to warm and changes from a very cold state to a warmer state, the texture and consistency of the ice to be shaved by a machine begins to change. As the ice warms, the texture of the ice begins to degrade and the quality of the shaved ice decreases making it more difficult for the machine to shave the warm ice, or at least the ability to provide a high quality shaved ice product is decreased because of the interaction between the blade of the machine and the ice block.
Machines in the marketplace may thus be characterized by several disadvantages that may be addressed by the disclosure. The disclosure minimizes, and in some aspects eliminates, the above-mentioned failures, and other problems, by utilizing the methods and structural features described herein.
The features and advantages of the disclosure will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by the practice of the disclosure without undue experimentation and are readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon review of the following drawings, detailed description, claims and abstract of this disclosure. The features and advantages of the disclosure may be realized and obtained by means of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.